Sacrifice
by BuggyNess
Summary: Dying on an alien world, Ryoko gives Tenchi a small sacrifice.


By Buggyness © 2001  
  
  
  
  
SACRIFICE  
  
  
Tenchi shifted his weight to his left leg. His right one was cramping slightly.  
  
"Washuuu!" He whined. "How much longer do you need me hooked up to this thing?"  
  
The boy stood on a slightly elevated and circular platform. A tall bar extended straight behind him with two curving armrests to which his hands were strapped tight. The bar behind him also had two smaller extensions which held his head facing forward.  
He was wearing nothing but his boxers but his chest and portions of his right leg had sticky electrodes affixed to various areas.   
  
"Awww, Tenchi, don't you want me to understand just how you're able to use those wittle powers of yours?" A childish voice piped in. "Besides, you like where I stick those electrodes. Hehehehe!"  
  
The small Washu stuck yet another wire to Tenchi's leg, precariously high up his thigh. The boy gulped.  
  
"Washu, come on, I'm hungry. We've been down here for hours. Sasami's got lunch about ready. Please, can't we take a break?"  
  
"Well…nope."  
  
Washu went over to her console and pushed a button. Suddenly a bright blue beam descended from on top of Tenchi and bathed him in a luminous glow.   
  
"That's odd." Said Washu.  
  
"Washu, this is kinda hot, can you turn it down a bit?"  
  
"This is very odd, indeed."   
  
The pink-haired scientist examined her console more thoroughly. Her eyes scanned the button she just pushed. They fell to the front of the console. The front of the panel looked somewhat different. She got closer.   
  
"What was this?"   
  
Washu peered closer to see that the front panel of the consol had some sort of putty holding it on. She fingered it slightly and the panel fell off. Washu held up her finger to see that the putty on it was actually chewing gum.  
  
"Come on, Washu, this hurts!" Tenchi said quite loudly.   
  
Washu peered from her finger to the now exposed panel. Inside the box the wires were sparking and smoking.   
  
Poof!  
  
"Mihoshi!" Screamed Washu so loudly the whole house shook.  
  
The blue beam that surrounded the dark haired boy started to spark. Bright squiggles of electricity swarmed and hit Tenchi. He began to scream.  
  
"Washu! Come on, get me out of here!" He started to shake in the current of the beam.  
  
"Hold on, Tenchi!" Washu grabbed a remote from a velvet cushion floating nearby. She frantically pressed the button. As she did, the straps on Tenchi's arms and those restraining his head released.   
  
"Come on, Tenchi, jump out of there!"  
  
"I, I, I, I, c,c,c,an't!" He stammered. He was only able to bring his arms down from the armrests. Tenchi grasped himself and winched in pain as the sparkling blue beam became flickered with red.   
  
"Miss Washu, what is going on here?" A voice from behind uttered.  
  
"Ayeka, please stand back!"   
  
"Tenchi!" The purpled haired first princess of Jurai ran toward the boy who was now totally enveloped in light. Washu grabbed on to her sash preventing her from touching him.  
  
"Do not get closer, this is a temporal disturbance probably caused by Mihoshi meddling in the lab. If you touch him, you will be trapped with him!"  
  
"I don't care! Someone, please help us!"  
  
At that moment, the rest of the Masaki family stumbled into Washu's lab. Ryouko, the pirate, Aeyka's little sister, Sasami, the bumbling Mihoshi and her partner Kiyone along with Tenchi's grandfather, Katshuhito and finally, Tenchi's father, Nobouyuki.  
  
"Stop! Don't anyone touch him! I'm trying to contain the field and get him out!" screamed Washu as she typed furiously on her portable computer pad.  
  
Tenchi began screaming in pain and writhing within the light.   
  
"Damnit, Washu! He's hurting! Tenchi!" Screamed Ryouko as she flew past the others and toward Tenchi.  
  
"Ryouko! No!" Yelled Washu, but too late as Ryouko wrapped her arms around Tenchi as to carry him out of that beam. Instead, it enveloped her as well.   
  
"I can't stop it, I just can't stop it!" Washu uttered as sweat fell from her forehead.  
  
"Look! Something's happening!" Yelled Kiyone.  
  
Tenchi and Ryouko, both growling in pain slowly became transparent. A tiny orb materialized above them. Their vaporous forms twisted and writhed until sucked in by the orb. The small ball of light contracted and expanded in a stunning explosion that knocked the others to the ground.   
  
All was black.  
  
"What happened to Tenchi?" Ayeka was the first to rise and scour the lab for her Tenchi.  
  
"It seems, someone messed with my control panel!" Washu sneered at Mihoshi.   
"And, they switched the wires for the bio reader with the wires to my catalog of sub space labs and environments."   
  
"Waaaaaa, I'm sorry! I thought that was part of the video game system!" Mihoshi cried. "I was trying to put the cartridge in and, and, it broke!"   
  
"Mihoshi, you twit! You know you are not supposed to be in Washu's lab!" piped Kiyone.  
  
"I'm sorry! Please find Tenchi and Ryouko Miss Washu!"  
  
"I'm working on it, everyone." She popped up a video screen and began typing on her laptop. "It seems that my little bio reader became a portal to one of my subspace environments."  
  
"That shouldn't be too bad, we can get them out once you find them, right?" asked Nobouyuki.  
  
"Well…ah hum, well…"  
  
"Well what, Miss Washu!" yelled Aeyka.  
  
"Well, I've been creating these small labs and environments every place I can. You, know, to do certain experiments or like the little onsen I created for your girls to enjoy, or this lab here in the broom closet, oh, for about 20,000 years or so. Sometimes I delete them when I'm done, sometimes I don't. Sometimes I finish them totally, sometimes, I don't…."  
  
"What do you mean, finish them totally?' Asked Tenchi's Grandfather.  
  
"Well, um, some of them have breathable air, some have only carbon dioxide...Some have water and plants, some don't."  
  
"Washu, please tell us you can find Tenchi." Pleaded Sasami. The cabbit Ryo-oki  
chimed in a "miya."  
  
"Yes, I will, no doubt about it…it's just, I have about 23,000 of them floating out there. This may take some time."  
  
"Please, little Washu, please find them. I didn't mean to have this happen." Mihoshi bawled.   
  
"Mihoshi, we'll find them. Come on, let's let her work," Kiyone said as she ushered the distraught blonde out of the lab. The others followed, leaving Washu and Ryo-oki alone in the lab.  
  
"Miya?" Asked the cabbit.  
  
"I know, Ryo-oki. I can't speak to Ryouko either, our psychic link has been severed."  
  
***  
  
Tenchi and Ryouko flew through time and space at breakneck speed. They flailed their arms and legs about. Suddenly, a shimmering glow appeared in the space tunnel in which they traveled. Quickly, a shining orb was approaching their feet. They landed with a thud on the crystal floor.  
  
"Ouch!" Tenchi winched, clutching his left arm.  
  
"Are you OK?" Asked Ryouko rubbing her head.  
  
"No, I think my arm is broken." Tenchi grimaced as he tried to rotate his wrist; there was a large bruise on his forearm. "I think I landed on it."   
  
"Here, let me help you out."  
  
Ryouko took off the red sash from her pink kimono. The fabric still held tight to her svelte form. She gingerly made a sling and helped Tenchi's arm into it.   
  
"Thanks, it doesn't hurt at all if I don't move it. Where do you suppose we are?   
  
"I don't know, but I'm gonna find out."   
  
Ryouko flew up into the air. Her alien physiology allowed her to defy gravity. High up she went. She was able to see more clearly their prison. It was about as big as the hot springs Washu created for them. However, there was absolutely no water, no lush plants, no rocks, nothing but a flat crystal floor and the big domed sky. Ryouko could see the stars when she looked above and she attempted to fly higher.  
  
Bonk!  
  
"Ouch!" She yelped as she hit an invisible shield that surrounded the platform.  
  
Ryouko summoned the power of the red gem that was imbedded in her left wrist. She attempted to phase through the shield, to pass right through it.  
  
Bonk!  
  
"Shit! Tenchi! I can't get through!" She rubbed her head and descended to the crystal ground.  
  
"Ryouko, where do you think we are?"  
  
"Looks like a sort of room Washu created."  
  
"Well, good, then all we have to do is wait, she'll find us."  
  
"Tenchi, she has a lot of them." Ryouko looked worried.  
  
"Well, she is the smartest woman in the universe. She'll find us." Tenchi smiled nervously.  
  
"I hope so, it's hot here."   
  
Ryouko phased out of her kimono. She stood there in a short sleeved version and holding the extra fabric folded in her hands.   
  
"Here, if we have to rest on this hard ground, we can uses these as cushions."   
  
They both sat down on the fabric.  
  
Tenchi then remembered he was clad only in his boxers. A bead of sweat formed at his temple and he blushed.   
  
"God, Tenchi, I've seen you with less on. Don't worry, this ground is much too hard for me to jump you on…well, just about." Ryouko grinned and leaned forward.  
  
"Ryouko! Now's not the time!"  
  
"Come on, Tenchi, we've got some time to kill!"   
  
Ryouko embraced the boy. Tenchi yelped in pain from his arm.  
  
"Hey! That hurts!"  
  
"Oh, suck it up Tenchi. Besides, you don't have to use that arm!" She lunged at him again.  
  
Tenchi escaped her grasp and ran with the pirate at his heels. She lunged at him tugging at his shorts.  
  
***  
  
"Miss Washu?" pleaded Mihoshi carrying a tray of food.  
  
"What do you want?"  
  
"I, I thought, you could use a snack, I promise I won't touch anything."  
  
Washu, angered at first at the intrusion, gazed into the big, blue googly eyes of Mihoshi. She was forlorn and had been crying.  
  
"I'm so sorry." Mihoshi sniffed.  
  
"That's alright. Don't be afraid, I am close to finding them." Washu just could not remain mad at poor Mihoshi. Although the blonde was sure to break everything in sight, she was at times their good luck charm. "Besides, I'm sure they are just sitting around being bored waiting for us to find them!"   
  
***  
"Come on, Tenchi, you know you always wanted to be alone with me, Aeyka just kept you from it." Piped Ryouko, her arms around Tenchi's neck. She began kissing him.  
"Ryouko, cut it out!" Tenchi flung her off of him using all the strength in his right arm. She landed with a thud before him. "This is not the time or place for this!"  
  
"Oh, I see, there's another time and place, right?"  
  
"Ryouko, please."  
  
"Well, we've got a lot more time to kill here. I can wait." She stood up and began removing her pink kimono.  
  
"Ryouko, stop that!"  
  
"Silly boy, you've seen me naked before!" She snickered.  
  
The dress fell to the floor before Tenchi could stop it. Much to his surprise, Ryouko stood there wearing a linen under dress that covered her quite well.  
  
"Tenchi, you have a naughty mind." She laughed. "It's just too damn hot in here. What is it, about a hundred degrees? Are you uncomfortable too?"  
  
"Yeah, I can't seem to stop sweating."  
  
"Is it the heat, or is it me?" She growled.  
  
"Ryouko, it's the heat."   
  
Tenchi walked back to the pile of cloth on the ground and sat down. Ryouko picked up the kimono from the floor and wrapped it into a pillow. She reclined on the hard ground and rested her head upon the cushion she had just made.  
  
"Well, we'll play that game later. Right now, I'm too hot and tired to chase you around. I'd give anything for some sake or beer right now."  
  
"Yeah, or some green tea, or a big bucket of ice water, " Tenchi replied.  
  
The two lay there side by side in the relative comfort of the cushions Ryouko made with her garments. They both starred up into the sky.   
  
"I don't recognize any of these constellations. Do you Ryouko?"  
  
"No, Tenchi, we could be zillions of light years away from Earth."  
  
"Ryouko, when you flew up to the top of this thing, did you happen to see any water or living things?" Tenchi turned to her, his face quite serious.  
  
"No, Tenchi. There is nothing here but us and this damn heat."  
  
"Ryouko, I don't want to scare you. But Washu had better find us soon. I don't know about your body, but mine won't last long without water."  
  
Ryouko's face also turned very serious. She would rather die than see Tenchi suffer. Her own body needed neither water nor food, although she relished in overindulging in both, especially sake. Washu had created her and enabled her to draw in life energy from a planet's core, from the sun, from plants and trees, even from the dim light of stars. This unique part of her physiology allowed her to survive without aid of a space suite in outer space or need of oxygen when she was under water.   
  
This place, however, scared her. For one there was no source, not even the stars to draw her energy from. The shield that held them in, also kept the dim star light energy out. The only thing she could draw from was the gem in her wrist, and…Tenchi-something she would not think of. The gem posed a problem. She was not exactly sure how to harness its energy. She could remember it took 700 years in the cave for her to gain the strength to be freed, with Tenchi's help, of course. But all her gems had been embedded in the sword Tenchiken, outside the seal that held her imprisoned. Now that it was in her wrist, she would have to concentrate to gain life energy from it. If only she had the other two gems, she believed it would be easier to figure out. But that would not help Tenchi at all.  
  
"Tenchi?" Ryouko asked staring up at the dark star-flecked sky  
  
"Yes?"  
  
"When you were little, right after…" She paused. "Right after your mom died, do you remember ever seeing me outside that cave?"  
  
"Uh, why do you ask?"  
  
"Dunno, just popped into my head."  
  
"Well, I would pretend I saw someone there-my playmate. I always felt someone there anyway. When my mother died Grandpa or dad could not console me. When I went to the cave I just started to feel better…comforted. Thank you Ryouko, for being there. Ayeka told me the whole story."  
  
"Royal brat! She never could keep anything to herself."  
  
"I think at the time, she did tell me in order to hurt you, but it only made me appreciate your friendship more, Ryouko."  
  
"Friendship," Ryouko thought, "is that all I am?"  
  
"Now that I answered your question, how about one of my own?" Tenchi asked.  
  
"Ok."  
  
"Ryouko, when you were under Kagato's control, just…just how many people did you…"he sweated out the last part of his sentence. ".…did you kill?  
  
Ryouko was strangely taken aback by Tenchi's question. She would expect such an inquiry from Aeyka-to use against her. Or, maybe Kiyone or Washu on her bad days would bring up such an icky memory. Why would kind, sweet, Tenchi, want to know something so horrible.  
  
"Well…um…Tenchi, there were just too many." She hunkered down and shivered at the memory. Ryouko hated what she was. She hated Kagato for controlling her mind, making her do his evil bidding. Before Tenchi's grandfather has imprisoned her in that tomb of a cave she was a pirate, an assassin, a…demon-ruled by the will of a madman.  
  
"Please, Ryouko, I…I didn't mean to make you upset." Tenchi realized the gravity of his question. "I just, I just wondered about death, about getting over killing someone. I hated Kagato, probably as much as you, but it was still weird taking a life, even an evil one. I wondered how you, how you got…over it?"  
  
"I never got over it." She turned to him, a serious look upon her face. "I thank the gods for the memories that remain forgotten and I pray each day to lose the ones I have."  
  
Silence.  
  
"Ryouko, none of that was your fault."  
  
"I know. I just feel like a monster."  
  
"You are nothing like a monster. You are strong and loyal. You would protect any of us to the end…even Ayeka."   
  
Ryouko smiled. Her golden eyes sparkled in the starlight.  
  
"Tenchi, you're right…not about Ayeka though." She smirked.  
  
They both resumed star-gazing. Tenchi let out a yawn.  
  
"Man, it's so hot. I think I'll take a little nap."  
  
"Me too."  
  
They both drifted off to sleep.   
  
***  
Mihoshi sat in the Masaki living room. Her usually happy face was drawn with worry. She couldn't seem to keep her hair all up in the ponytail she wore and her eyes were puffy and tired. It had been two days since the mishap she caused.  
  
Everyone was treating her well even if she had sent Tenchi and Ryouko to their doom. She hadn't slept. She hadn't eaten-something that worried Sasami to tears the night before.  
"Miss Mihoshi?" Asked Tenchi's grandfather. "You must rest, you need to be well."  
  
"Oh, honorable father! You should throw me out of your son's house! I don't deserve to eat any of your food." She bawled.  
  
"Mihoshi, sit back down. I want you to know you did make a mistake. However, we all still love and want you here." Katsuhito put his arm around her. "Perhaps Washu could use your assistance?"  
  
"Oh no, she'd kill me if I went back in her lab."  
  
"Sometimes we must overcome our fears. Take a peak in there."  
  
"Well, maybe…." Mihoshi peered at the little door under the staircase. She decided to wait for a while before offering her help again.  
  
***  
Ryouko awoke to a dry, sore throat. She was utterly soaked with perspiration. How long had they slept? An hour? A day? She couldn't seem to sit up. Her body was so tired. The heat, the damn heat had gotten worse. Perhaps this was the room's day cycle and they had arrived during the "night time".   
  
Tenchi.  
  
She turned her head over to her companion. He was still sleeping but it seems that his breathing was labored. Ryouko summoned all of her strength to pull her body upright. Her head was pounding. Was the atmosphere in this place as foul as the temperature? She leaned over and shook Tenchi awake.  
  
"Tenchi!"  
  
"Aw, Ryouko, just a few more minutes."  
  
"Tenchi, wake up!"   
  
Tenchi slowly opened his eyes. His first sight was of Ryouko peering over him. He halfway believed he was back in his own room, safe in his own bed, and about to be pounced awake by the beautiful girl. Then, he remembered where he really was.  
  
"Ouch…my throat is so dry." He muffled, his voice scratchy. "It's gotten hotter."  
  
"Yes," she replied, helping Tenchi up to a sitting position. "But, I'm certain that there's something wrong with the air here as well. I can't quite place it, but it is definitely foul." Ryouko notices Tenchi grasp his head with his good arm and wince in pain.  
  
"Tenchi?"  
  
"Ryouko….I feel like…like I drank too much sake last night. My head is as heavy as a rock." He sank back down.   
  
"Come on, Tenchi, don't go back to sleep!" Ryouko had the sinking feeling that should he resume his nap, Tenchi would not awake.  
  
Ryouko now was aware that her body was summoning the power of her one gem which had been the whole time sustaining her strength while Tenchi languished. She felt hot, groggy and tired, but otherwise healthy. Tenchi rested his head back on Ryouko's kimono pillow.   
  
"Ryouko….I'm just so….so sleepy." Tench closed his eyes.  
  
"Come on, lazy bones!" she shook him roughly to awake him. "No rest for the wicked!"  
  
"Ryouko, "he mumbled, "I…can't." His eyes opened and he gazed up at her helplessly.  
  
"Damnit, I'm still able to do something about our predicament!" Ryouko growled with growing anger. A pulse of energy ran down her body from her head to her feet and as it traveled, her garment changed from the sweat soaked white dress into her red and black battle gear. She gazed at Tenchi determined to do something to help.  
  
Ryouko shot up into the air.  
***  
  
Mihoshi tip-toed into Washu's lab. Washu typed like a mad woman at her control panel. Beside her Kiyone scanned a monitor scrolling through files at breakneck speed.   
Ayeka paced back and forth, in fact, she had worn a path in the floor of the lab.  
  
"One thing's for sure," Ayeka growled, " If they are alive, she's trying to seduce him…and I'm not there to remind him of his virtue!"  
  
"Ayeka!" Kiyone reprimanded the princess.  
  
"Ohhh!" she cried. "Gods in Heaven, I would rather that demon have him than, than, he…" she gulped. "…than he had died!" She collapsed to the ground in heaving sobs.  
  
"Here we go again," Kiyone rolled her eyes and left her work station to comfort Aeyka. "There, there. Ayeka, we are going to find them."  
  
While all eyes were diverted to the distraught princess, Mihoshi silently sat in Kiyone's chair. She starred at the screen floating at eye level. It appeared to be file names of all the worlds Washu had created. She knew that Washu had a computer program automatically searching her database but Kiyone was going over it manually as well. Mihoshi felt since she caused this disaster she had to be the one to make it right. Although she had no idea what she was doing, Mihoshi began pressing buttons on the keypad.  
  
"What are you doing!" yelled Washu, turning to the blonde.   
  
Mihoshi was about to reply, but her finger caused the screen to scroll down. She had pressed another key at the same time and in doing so, had selected a file and opened it. Suddenly, an alarm went off. The lights started to blink. On the large wall screen the words "Eureka!" flashed in red.  
  
"Mihoshi, get away from that!" Screamed Kiyone running to her partner as to pull her away from the console.  
  
"No! Kiyone, Mihoshi has found them!" Washu ran to Mihoshi's console and typed furiously.  
  
***  
Ryouko flew up into the air as if in a murderous rage. A heavy fog confused her mind. She was taking Tenchi out of this hell. She summoned the power of her one gem. Her body began to emit a luminous orange glow. She put her hands together and swung them both to the right and flung an enormous energy ball at the shield of their prison. Sparks flew and then nothing. She vaulted back and charged her powers again, this time she hurled a continuous stream of power into the same point of her initial blast.   
  
The air around her was electrified and sparks flew. A tiny crack appeared in the dome. Ryouko kept it up. The small crack grew larger and a small hole appeared. Her power was exhausted temporarily. Ryouko fell to the ground. She gazed up at the damage she had created. Suddenly, she noticed there was a horrible hissing sound. Ryouko, in her anger had attempted to make an escape route, forgetting that Tenchi could not survive unaided in space. The poor atmosphere of their tomb was being sucked out through the small hole. Ryouko had only succeeded in quickening the pace of Tenchi's death.   
  
"No!" She uttered in pure exhaustion. "Tenchi, I'm sorry, so sorry, I've killed you."  
  
Tenchi had seen Ryouko's attempt. His mind was as fuzzy as hers as they both were under the influence of the poisoned atmosphere. He too, did not realize the gravity of her act until it was too late.   
  
"Ryouko, don't worry, please…" He stammered and closed his eyes for a moment. He noticed his lungs felt weird. "Just sit here by me, for a while."  
  
"Tenchi," Ryouko sobbed. Her mind wandered. She tried to think of how she could save him. She nestled down and held the sleepy boy in her arms. The air was whizzing out at a faster rate.  
  
Suddenly, a brilliant idea popped into her head. So simple, so wonderfully perfect except for one tiny little thing…she would not survive it.  
  
"Tenchi, I have to see your left arm." She gingerly removed the sling and extended his arm, maneuvering his hand so that his wrist faced up. He slightly groaned with the pain the tiny movement caused.  
  
"Tenchi?"  
  
"Yes, " he replied.  
  
"I love you."  
  
"I know." He closed his eyes.  
  
Ryouko summoned an inner power. She held his hand, both of their wrists facing up. This power within her caused the red gem in her wrist to glow. Ryouko prayed for the miracle she had envisioned and her prayer was answered.   
  
The red gem's glow illuminated the whole area and when the glow died down, it was no longer resting in the wrist of the pirate, but in the wrist of the young man she cradled. A tiny red spark traveled from the gem in the boy's wrist and up his arm. It engulfed his weak body and he took a deep last breath.   
  
Ryouko's body was in shock without her power source. She still did not need air, which was almost completely gone from the dome, but without the extra support of oxygen and her gem, she transformed back into the coma like state. It was as if Ryouko was back in the cave before Tenchi released her. She fell back to the ground at Tenchi's side.   
  
The crystal prison was silent. All the air had escaped into space. No movement, no sounds, not even the rhythm of breath escaped the two prostrate bodies lying on pink fabric in the center of a floor of glass.  
  
Suddenly, a portal opened. Two figures wearing fitted space suits emerged from the black portal hole.   
"Any life signs?"  
  
"Scanning, Kiyone."  
  
"Well?" She pleaded.  
  
"Only…only…one!" Washu cried in anguish. "Hurry get them back!"   
  
The two pulled Ryouko and Tenchi into the portal.  
  
***  
"Nooooo!" Ayeka yelled in a blood curdling scream. "Why not her! Why not her!" She clung to the lifeless body of the man she loved eternally. "I'm not going to accept this! Not again, not ever!" She grabbed some contraption and flung it at Washu's feet. "You will do something! I command you as First Princess of Jurai to revive him!"  
Her eyes were unnaturally glowing.   
  
"Ayeka," Washu shook her head slowly side to side and calmly approached the table on top of which Tenchi was laying. "I, I would offer my own life to save his, to do anything to save him…there is just nothing any of us can do for him now."  
  
"Tenchi!" Ayeka clung to him and sobbed on his chest.  
  
Washu, again, calmly walked over to the opposite table on which was Ryouko. She was unconscious but her chest moved up and down with glorious breath. Her body had already started to heal in the sweet atmosphere of the Earth. Even without her gems, she was bathing in the life energy of the wonderful planet around her.   
  
"Oh, my little Ryouko." Washu uttered as she pushed a stray bang off of the pirate's forehead. She shuttered at the thought of telling her about Tenchi when she awoke.  
  
"Little Ryouko! That beast killed my Tenchi!" Ayeka lunged toward Ryouko. She mananged to bring her fists down on the pirate's chest as she was tackled to the floor by Mihoshi and Kiyone. "I hate her!"  
  
"Quickly, hold her down." Washu reached for a bag to her right and brought out a syringe-like object. Ayeka was howling madly and thrashing about insanely on the floor. Washu injected her with the syringe. Within seconds, she calmed down.  
  
"I hate her...hate her." Aeyka slumped down and the two galaxy police officers released her. She calmly stared at the table where Tenchi lay. "Tenchi." She uttered over and over in her medicated state.  
  
"Mihoshi, please gather the family…Kiyone, you too."   
  
Mihoshi, in tears, and the still stoic Kiyone left the lab. Washu surveyed this horrible scene. Ryouko was unconscious, Ayeka mad, and Tenchi…Tenchi was dead. The smartest woman in the universe succumbed to her child like form and sank the floor in tears.  
  
***  
Ryouko sat up suddenly. She was cold, gloriously cold compared the hell she vaguely remembered. Something else hung just on the tip of her mind…Tenchi.  
  
"Where is he?"  
  
"Settle down, Ryouko, please, rest yourself." Mihoshi gestured to Ryouko to lay back down.  
  
"I've had all the rest I need. Where's Tenchi?" She remembered her sacrifice. She remembered giving Tenchi her gem. Ryouko gazed at her empty left wrist. Why was she still alive? Unless…  
  
"Mihoshi! Where is Tenchi?"  
  
Mihoshi burst into tears and ran out of the room.   
  
Ryouko scanned her surroundings. She was upstairs, in Tenchi's bed. She was wearing a t-shirt and shorts. Where was he? Ryouko got up slowly and exited the room. Just outside, Mihoshi was sobbing in the floor. Dazed, Ryouko slowly walked down the stairs.   
  
Just inside the living room, Sasami sobbed in the arms of Nobuyuki. Tenchi's grandfather held his hand firmly on his son in law's shoulder. He closed his eyes and prayed to lift the burden of sadness from Nobuyuki who suffered a double loss of both his wife and then his only son. Ryo-ooki cried gently at Sasami's side.   
  
As in a dream like state, Ryouko walked past the others and toward the lab door. She entered Washu's lair. As the room entered her field of vision she first saw Ayeka, sitting in the floor mumbling to herself and still heavily sedated. Kiyone sat in Washu's chair, her head in her hands. And Washu, Washu stood by the far table, a table which was covered by a soft white cloth.   
  
"I'm so sorry, little Ryouko." Washu told Ryouko using their mental link.  
  
"It can't be!" Ryouko snapped out of her daze and flew to the table and ripped off the shroud. Tenchi lay there peacefully, still, cold and pale.   
  
"It was supposed to be me! I tried to save him!  
  
"I know you tried."  
  
"No, you don't understand…he could not have died!" She grabbed his left arm.  
  
"Ryouko!"  
  
"No! See! I gave it to him." She frantically tried to get Washu to see the red gem still embedded in Tenchi's left wrist.   
  
"Oh, Ryouko!" Washu ran her finger over the gem. Tiny sparks crinkled up Tenchi's arm. "Kiyone! Quick, toss me that red device."  
  
Kiyone startled out of her anguish found the meter Washu asked for and flung it to her. The pink haired scientist ran the scanner over Tenchi's body.   
  
"Gods! How could I have missed this!"  
  
"What!" demanded Ryouko, tears streaming down her face.  
  
"No heart beat, no breathing, but his blood…it's still circulating somehow and, let's see, beta waves…barely present!"  
  
"What?" Asked Kiyone.  
  
"He is alive! The gem has kept him alive!" Washu snapped her fingers and a keypad and monitor appeared floating before her. She began typing and huge mechanical contraptions lowered themselves above Tenchi's body. Gears turned. Cranks twisted. A beam of white light flowed down upon his body.   
  
Tenchi stirred.  
  
"Te…Tenchi?" Uttered Ayeka.  
  
"Tenchi!" Yelled Ryouko grasping his right hand.   
  
The boy grimaced under the bright light until it was extinguished. Slowly, he opened his eyes to see the beaming faces of Kiyone, Washu and Ryouko taking over his fuzzy field of vision.  
  
"What? You looked like you've seen a ghost?" He said curiously.  
  
Kiyone passed out and fell to the floor.  
  
***  
It was a beautiful, sunny day. Birds sang merrily and Sasami hummed along with them as she prepared the evening meal. Soft giggles emanated from the Masaki living room.   
  
"Tenchi!" Cooed Ryouko. "You're not leaving my sight!" She wrapped her arm around his neck.   
  
"Ryouko!"  
  
"Nor am I letter you out of mine, Lord Tenchi!" Aeyka was on his opposite side and her arm around him as well.  
  
Tenchi smiled. For once, the girls were not fighting. He smiled at them both and silently promised to himself never to set foot in Washu's lab again.  
  
  
  
End.   
  



End file.
